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Plainva 0.3.1: templates that know their database, and a sync fix

July 17, 2026

0.3.0 was the big one. 0.3.1 is the follow-up that makes a few things sit right — plus one small feature I’d wanted for a while. Still plain Markdown, still your files, no format changes.

Templates that know their database

If you keep databases in your vault (.base files), you probably have a template or two that goes with each one — a “Task” template for your tasks database, a “Project” template for projects. Until now those templates lived in a folder and the database didn’t know they were related, so you’d pick from the whole pile every time.

Now a template can say where it belongs. Add plainva.templateFor to its frontmatter — or just use Assign to this database from the entry menu — and it shows up right there in that database’s Entry menu, ready to use. Unassigned templates are still one tap away under Show all templates, and a Target databases… dialog lets you manage the links. Rename a .base and its template assignments follow it, the same way body links and embeds already do.

The marker lives in the file, so — like everything in Plainva — the assignment travels with the vault, syncs across devices, and stays visible in Obsidian.

A sync fix worth the point release

This is the real reason 0.3.1 exists. Under some timing, sync could mistake one of its own pushes — echoed back from the provider — for a change made somewhere else, and drop a .CONFLICT copy next to a note you never touched. Never a threat to your data, but noisy and confusing. It doesn’t do that anymore. This one lives in the shared sync core, so desktop and mobile both get it.

Clearer tabs, and mobile polish

The Graph and Tasks tabs — the two “virtual” views that aren’t backed by a file — now show their proper localized names and their own icons in the recents strip, the tab strips and the quick switcher, instead of a raw internal path.

Mobile got a good pass too: sync no longer freezes the app and stays responsive through a cycle, text selection uses the platform’s own handles, the on-screen keyboard behaves more predictably while you edit, and a button in the note header opens the context sheet directly. The mobile 0.3.1 build is already in the internal test track on Android and on TestFlight for iOS.

If you’re on 0.3.0, the built-in updater will offer 0.3.1; otherwise it’s on the releases page. Plain files, no format changes — your vaults just work.

— Marco